A leopard cat found last month in Miaoli County’s Gongguan Township (公館) is recovering from injuries and dehydration, the Miaoli County Unique Animals Preservation Association said yesterday.
The leopard cat is an indigenous wild cat that is endangered and protected. According to research by National Pingtung University’s Institute of Wildlife Conservation, there are fewer than 1,000 in the country.
Called leopard cats because of their leopard-like spots, the animals are marked with twin white stripes across the forehead and are slightly larger than domestic cats, but have long thick tails and are nocturnal carnivores.
Photo: Ho Tsung-han, Taipei Times
The association said it found the leopard cat on Cianshan (淺山) in Gongguan with its right front leg caught in a trap. Association director Lin Ching-chi (林清棋) alerted the county’s Agriculture Department and sent the leopard cat to a veterinarian.
The mating season for leopard cats is from December to April, and the routes the cats take tend to follow the paths of their prey and are unpredictable, Lin said, adding that the leopard cat the association found could have been caught in the trap for as long as eight days.
There were maggots in its wounds and the cat was lucky that it rained recently or it would have died of dehydration, Lin said. After the veterinarian amputated the limb and injected the cat with nutrients, it gradually regained its health, he added.
Meanwhile, the county’s Agriculture Department yesterday reminded the public that if they found leopard cats preying on domestic animals, they should not attempt to capture or kill them, but contact the local fire station.
Capturing or selling leopard cats is against the Wildlife Conservation Act (野生動物保育法) and is punishable with a prison sentence of six months to five years, along with a fine of NT$200,000 to NT$1 million, the department said.
Translated by Jake Chung, Staff Writer
The first of 10 new high-capacity trains purchased from South Korea’s Hyundai Rotem arrived at the Port of Taipei yesterday to meet the demands of an expanding metro network, Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC) said yesterday. The train completed a three-day, 1,200km voyage from the Port of Masan in South Korea, the company said. Costing NT$590 million (US$18.79 million) each, the new six-carriage trains feature a redesigned interior based on "human-centric" transportation concepts, TRTC said. The design utilizes continuous longitudinal seating to widen the aisles and optimize passenger flow, while also upgrading passenger information displays and driving control systems for a more comfortable
Taiwan's first indigenous defense submarine, the SS-711 Hai Kun (海鯤, or Narwhal), departed for its 13th sea trial at 7am today, marking its seventh submerged test, with delivery to the navy scheduled for July. The outing also marked its first sea deployment since President William Lai (賴清德) boarded the submarine for an inspection on March 19, drawing a crowd of military enthusiasts who gathered to show support. The submarine this morning departed port accompanied by CSBC Corp’s Endeavor Manta (奮進魔鬼魚號) uncrewed surface vessel and a navy M109 assault boat. Amid public interest in key milestones such as torpedo-launching operations and overnight submerged trials,
Quarantine awareness posters at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport have gone viral for their use of wordplay. Issued by the airport branch of the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency, the posters feature sniffer dogs making a range of facial expressions, paired with advisory messages built around homophones. “We update the messages for holidays and campaign needs, periodically refreshing materials to attract people’s attention,” quarantine officials said. “The aim is to use the dogs’ appeal to draw focus to quarantine regulations.” A Japanese traveler visiting Taiwan has posted a photo on X of a poster showing a quarantine dog with a
SECURITY RISK: A university student sent a general alarm signal to THSRC’s control center on April 5, causing four operating trains to temporarily halt services The Ministry of Transportation and Communications yesterday pledged to submit a report on ways to harden the communication security of railway systems after a university student hacked into Taiwan High Speed Rail Corp’s (THSRC) radio communications system and disrupted operations of four high-speed rail trains last month. Investigation by the police and prosecutors found that the university student and radio enthusiast, surnamed Lin (林), first used a software-defined radio (SDR) filter to analyze THSRC signals, downloaded the data to a computer, cracked the parameters and then programmed the codes into his radio devices. Lin then sent a general alarm signal to
RSS